Free Range: Photography
Don't Panic pick the best photographers
This summer, the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane becomes a place where future artists can reveal their talent. Dedicated to photography, the second week of Free Range Art and Design Show was a mash of styles, themes and techniques. Without set topics ordering the shows, there was a lot of variety and a sense of disorder. Here are Don’t Panic’s picks of the latest show!
Some of the BA Photography students from Plymouth College of Art decided to experiment with the medium. Their work provokes contemplation, poses questions, and thus it marks out considerably from the others.
Harry Hilliar's images are part of a self-reflective project, Psychokinesis, representing the voice of deaf people and the many difficulties they encounter in an everyday life. His works are a visual representation of being excluded from society, being excluded from casual conversations. This isolation is depicted by a series of images where the artist levitates above the heads of people sitting on the grass.
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Another Plymouth graduate, Jonny Green, succesfully experimented with paint in the High Impact project. He depicted his obsession with colours and literally hit his models with paint. Light, vivid hues contrast markedly with the black background. The project has undeniable potential commercial value – the photographs could be used in advertising for the latest HD TV.
This year's University for the Creative Arts in Farnham graduates concentrated on the French term 'objectif' meaning a lens, unbiased view and a goal. The exhibition was human-centered, it mainly consisted of portraits, people being photographed in casual everyday situations.
We particularly liked the work of Andrew Bruce, whose Tender series focused on his relationship with animals, their beauty and wildness. Deriving from his love of fury creatures, Bruce admits that when he finds a roadkill, he takes it home, freezes it and then buries it!
Among Swansea Metropolitan University's graduates, Tim Crooks’ work was outstanding. Growing up next to an asylum in the South of England, he often met and spoke to patients. Therefore when he spotted West Park Asylum he decided to pursue his childhood yearnings and reconnect with the past. His work portrays this place filled with confusion, curiosity and secrecy. Crooks takes the viewers on a journey through the gloomy corridors of an abandoned hospital for the mentally ill. The author points out the irony that the asylum he grew up next to is due to be transformed into a set of luxury appartaments.
Joe Luka from University of Central Lancashire also focused on mental illness. In The Ugly Side of Me, Luka explores identity and obsessions as he tries to reveal hidden, perhaps violent and perverse, aspects of his mind. He admits that having suffered from depression, he opened his eyes to other aspects of his mind. The result is a series of auto-portraits, where he depicts himself as angry, suffering or ugly.
Our last pick is also from University of Central Lancashire. Yousra Salem states that her work makes the viewer contemplate about fertility, abortion and (ekhm) identity. Seriously, is this the picture you'd want to see in a gallery?
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Guest: jessiekirstyWed 30 - Mar - 2011, 10:56Did it take all of both your two brain cells to think of a genius comment like that. What a moron lol -
Guest:Tue 15 - Jun - 2010, 08:37and people wonder why everybody hates fucking art students...
